2016!

I hope everyone had a very Merry Christmas, and I hope you guys have a Happy New Year, as well! As another year comes to a close, we have the wonderful opportunity to analyze ourselves and see how we grew this past year, what goals we were able to achieve, and also of course, what we need to work on for the next year! I honestly cannot believe for a second that 2016 comes to a close this week. I think this was the fastest year of my whole life, and the most challenging, rewarding and best for my life as well! 2016 is a year that will always be remembered, probably every single day of my life as the year that I spent every single second as a missionary of the Lord!

I know that we have all grown this year.  As we look back and think about who we were and who we are, we should be able to see growth in ourselves, even if it is a little growth. Even if it is something that seems insignificant, progression is the most important thing! As this year ends, I can honestly say that I have grown and changed a lot, in ways that continue to surprise me, but most of all in my relationship and understanding of Jesus Christ, His Atonement, and His gospel. 

I know the kind of person I want to be forever, and exactly what it takes to become that person! I know that through our trials, we grow and we can achieve the purpose that Heavenly Father has set for us.  I know that we play a huge role in the happiness of others as we share the gospel with them.  I know that Jesus Christ lives and is our Savior, and that what He did is personal for everyone! I know that day by day as we try our best, His grace and Atonement is what will carry us! I know that through Joseph Smith, Heavenly Father has restored His gospel, as a means whereby we may be able to live eternally with our families. I know that the Book of Mormon is true and contains the answers to all of life's problems and difficulties, and was written for us and our personal trials and hardships! I hope that all can realize everything we have to rejoice about as we strive every day to be better, to live our lives according to the commandments of God, and honor our covenants and remember Him every day! I know that Jesus Christ loves me, is aware of my struggles and weaknesses, and is with me every step of the way to lift me up!

“I stand all amazed at the love Jesus offers me, confused at the grace that so fully he proffers me. I tremble to know that for me he was crucified, that for me, a sinner, he suffered, he bled and died”

I hope you all have a wonderful week, a Happy New Year, and that you take advantage of the wonderful gift Heavenly Father has given us, that is the family!

I love you all and am very thankful for all the support and prayers!!

Que terminen bien el año J

Elder Yeoman

The Office Elders on Christmas Day!

Elder Stafford and Elder Yeoman at the Christmas Devotional

Christmas Day Skype with Elder Yeoman

Ellary made this heart and sent it to Jace. She told him
to keep it in his pocket always. She was so happy when
he pulled it out during our Skype yesterday.

Love that smile!!

Feliz Navidad

Hello Everybody!

Well, there is only 1 week before Christmas, and man did this year just fly by! I hope that maybe ya'll can even have a white Christmas this year. Honestly, I can't even imagine snow or cold right now at this time of the year here in Argentina with temperatures not even getting below 100, haha. But no matter the climate or how far away from home you are, Christmas is always a special time of the year!

This week we had a baptism. Andrea got baptized and it was an incredible experience. It was one of the most spiritual baptisms I have been a part of. It was really special! This experience here in Virreyes was a little different teaching an investigator. When we take investigators to church, everyone gives them the best welcoming and immediately supports them, which is something that I haven't up until this point seen very much here in Argentina. It makes all the difference! So whenever investigators come to church, just be their friend.  It makes all the difference having the support of a friend, how small it may be, as an investigator is investigating the church! These converts are those that don’t have to rely on the missionaries for all the help they need because they have friends and leaders that they already have great relationships with!

This week I was thinking a lot about differences between people who are happy, and people who are not. Sometimes we think that temporal happiness is what we need to always be happy, a nice car, nice house, lots of money, and other things that meet our temporal needs. But I know that there is a whole lot more to it! And the thought kept coming to me, “that they may always remember Him.” I think that true happiness that never ends come from a constant daily thanks and remembrance of our Savior, Jesus Christ. As we think about him throughout the day, His sacrifice, His love, and His example, how could we ever be sad? We may not have everything in the world (or so it seems), but we will always have a happiness through Jesus Christ...knowing that He died for us so that we may be able to have success in this life, and get through our trials, and truly be happy in an eternal perspective.

As we always remember Him, we have the promise to always have His spirit to be with us as well, which brings even more happiness and direction. If we can think more about Christ, we will be better, happier, feel more purpose, and be a light for other people!

I know that Jesus Christ lives and loves us and knows us perfectly. His gospel is perfect, and is the guide for our true happiness. As we come closer to Him, remember Him, and try our best to live like Him, a happiness will come into our lives that we have never experienced before!

I love you guys and wish to all a very Merry Christmas! 

Elder Yeoman

Elder Lyon and Elder Yeoman with Andrea on her baptism day

It's always a great day when Elder Stafford comes to the office

Yeo..man, I aint Lyon!

Hello Everyone!

Hope you all have had a great week and that everyone is enjoying this wonderful Christmas season. Today in the Light the World calendar is “Jesus taught others and so can you.”  I would teach my brother how to shoot a basketball ;) haha, just kidding, Zach!  But in all seriousness, I have seen that as we teach others, we end up learning a whole lot more, and in the process, help those we teach to grow in their testimony of Christ, or learn new skills, or whatever it may be! Jesus Christ always taught by example with the way He lived His life, and that is one thing that I always learned from my parents, teaching by example and love! We can all be examples, and help those around us to become better, and truly light the world!

This past week, I was walking down the street and felt that I needed to knock the door of a specific house, and when I did, someone came outside and we began to talk. We talked of course about Jesus Christ, and the faith that he had in Him. He told me something that caught my attention. Up until this point, he has never had a hope that through Christ, there is a life after this one. We kept talking and he told me that his mother had died exactly a year ago from tomorrow (the day after the day I contacted him), and that he really never thought that he could ever see her again. I felt very blessed to be able to testify to him that through the restored gospel and atonement of Jesus Christ, we are able to live eternally with our families. I helped him to learn that as he comes closer to Christ, and as he strives to strengthen his faith of Christ, he will have this same hope that we all share. I am very thankful for this opportunity to live with my family for eternity, and the wonderful and perfect plan of salvation. We have so much to be thankful for, and a great thing to teach for those who do not have this knowledge. The funny part of the story is after we were talking for a while I asked him if he would like to live with his mother again and he thought about it a little bit, then looked at me straight in the face and said “Pero está claro, sería como meter un gol de media cancha” haha. That means “Of course, it would be like scoring a goal from half field” haha, and he was dead serious! I thought that was awesome! Argentines always have to relate everything to soccer.

Yesterday, we had Stake Conference, and to start the conference they had 5 jovenes come up and speak that have received their mission calls recently. Then 6 more came up to speak after, that have returned home from their missions recently. It was my favorite part of the whole conference.  I enjoyed hearing about some experiences they have had, how pumped they are to go out and serve. Something was similar about all of the testimonies of the returned missionaries, and it is the fact that they came to truly know Christ, and understand mejor the atonement, and that is something that can never be taken away! I am so grateful for this time that the Lord has given me to serve Him and truly come closer to Him and to becoming the person that He needs me to be!

Sunday afternoon, Boca and River played, the 2 biggest soccer teams here in Buenos Aires..and about every 20 minutes the whole city erupted with people shouting "Goalllll!!" I have been here a while so I know how it is, but yesterday was over the top..Elder Lyon and I had to take cover, haha. Every time we went to an appointment, they either weren't there because they went somewhere else to watch the game, or they didnt want to talk to us because the game was on, haha. It made it a little bit difficult to work, but that's just how it is sometimes. At one point we were walking in a part of our area that is a little more dangerous, and there was a bunch of people holding up a stick with fire at the end burning boca jerseys, haha. They took it too far. I just imagined it was a Duke jersey and it made me feel better, haha! But whatever you hear about soccer down here in Argentina is true!

Andrea is progressing really well and will be getting baptized this Saturday! We have also found some more couples we are working with, and also a part member family that just moved to our ward who have been inactive for a long time. We crossed them in the street and we are starting to work with them to get them back to church. None of their kids are members of the church, so we are hoping to be able to help them!

As a mission, we are reading Jesus the Christ with the focus of strengthening our testimonies on the atonement and also in becoming more Christ like. I am very excited about it because becoming more like Christ is something that we have to strive for every day, and Jesus the Christ is an incredible book that has already helped me gain more knowledge of the Savior. We had a zone meeting last week that was probably the best of my mission and we talked about the importance of consecration. We then fasted as a zone, so with the help of the Lord we could think about ways to be more consecrated. We are doing a fast of 40 days of these things that we need to give up to be more consecrated! I know as we are more consecrated to the work of the Lord we will see more miracles, and be the means of helping a lot more people! Consecration doesn't only apply to missionaries.  I think we can all be more consecrated to the work of the Lord and His Gospel, and strive more to live always by His teachings. As we do so, all the blessings promised by the Lord will be poured out over us!

Jesus Christ lives and loves us!  He is the Son of God, and has made everything possible through his grace and atonement! 

I love you all! Thank you so much for all ya'll do for me! Have a great week!

Elder Yeoman

Elder Stagg and I washed the car today and it rained right after!!! :(

Selfie for my Mama!

After playing fútbol the other day, this is what the elders texted me ;)

(Ronaldinho is a famous soccer player) ;)

Buen Dia!!

Hello everyone! Hope all is well! This week was a good one down here in Argentina! It is getting really hot. I am starting to remember how hot it really gets down here being outside all day! But this year I have air conditioning so it isn't as extreme, but I am still glad I got the experience without it last year haha! I am feeling pretty much back to normal from the pneumonia, so thanks so much for all your prayers. They helped me a lot! People say that you never forget Christmas in your mission, and that is very true! I will never forget last Christmas, or this one tampoco! There is a special feeling being a missionary of the Lord every day, but even more during this time of year! It is incredible!

Here in our mission there is a thing called “Pension of the week” that the Andersons do that goes out to the companionship that has the cleanest pension every week, and mom you might be surprised but we won! Haha! I'm still not a big fan of the dishes but I have been working hard to keep a nice place that the spirit can always reside in J. 

One of our investigators, Andrea, is progressing really well and should be getting baptized either this week or the next! She could get baptized this week but we feel that another week would do a lot of good, so we are working towards that! She is a single mom of 3 really young kids, and is super humble and really wants to follow Christ. One of the coolest experiences is teaching someone that you can feel really just wants to follow Christ, and has desires to do all that is asked of them to change and follow Him, and that is what it is all about! We are also teaching a couple other people in her family, but they are struggling getting started and coming to church. Other than them, we have found a lot of possibilities that we will continue to be working with, but the main person to talk about would be Andrea.

I watched the Christmas Devotional this morning and something really caught my attention that one of the speakers said, but I can't remember which one it was. He said that the Christmas season isn't just to remember Christ's birth, but also the type of person He was. That made me think a lot about the person He was, and also about the “Light the World” program that the church has put out for this month. It helps us understand who He was, what He did, and the grand example that He is for all! As we do these little things every day, like little acts of service, or read the scriptures, or seeing the good in people, giving compliments, we will become more like the Savior, and understand more WHO He was. I am so grateful for my Savior, and the great example He is for me, of charity, service and love to all. No matter their situation or circumstance, He always saw the good in everyone and always lifted people up. 

I hope that all of you have watched this video of Christmas and are trying to do these things every day to be more like the Savior, and truly light the world! You are all lights in this world, and everybody needs your light!! 

I know that this church is true, and that Christ has given us absolutely everything we need to be successful and light the world! We have so much to be grateful for!

I love you all! Have a great week!! Let me know if any of you need anything! Thanks for all ya'll do!

Elder Yeoman

Elder Lyon and I won "Pension of the Week"

More pictures of our clean pension!

After being sick for a week, I came back to my computer to find this!!!😝
They got me good!! 

Elder Lyon and I in our Sunday best!!